Bow ties 'knot' really collection

Plymouth man has 103 on display at library.

Plymouth man has 103 on display at library.

October 11, 2006|JENNIFER OCHSTEIN Tribune Correspondent

To Bill Laramore his bow tie collection isn't really a collection. After all, he wears nearly all 103 for different occasions throughout the year -- except maybe the oversized maroon crocheted one and the one his wife, Betty Lou, calls the brown "ugly furry" tie. "I didn't consider them a collection until I was asked to display them at the library," he said as he stood in front of a display cabinet at the Plymouth Public Library. The 86-year-old Plymouth resident has been sneaking in periodically to take a bow tie from the display. Otherwise he would get bored wearing the same tie day after day. The display went up in September and will stay through October. You can't really expect a guy to wear the same bow tie every day for two months in a row, can you? On a recent day, he was wearing his yellow library tie, with books each side of the knot. Bill, who only wears pre-tied bow ties, slipped it back into the cabinet after the photos were taken. "They're like socks," he said. "You just keep accumulating them." He wears a bow tie nearly every day. The only time of year he avoids is during the summer when it's too hot. Bill, who served 15 years on the Plymouth Public Library Board, said it's a habit that skipped a generation. His grandfather, Frank Bosworth, was a bow-tie man. But Bill's father, Herbert Laramore, was not. He said he remembers his mother dressing him in bow ties. But he picked up the habit in earnest in his adult years when he owned Bosworth's, a former clothing store in Plymouth. He needed to look professional when he was working, so he needed to wear a tie. But long ties got in the way when he needed to do manual work around the store. He started wearing bow ties instead. If you really want to see a collection, he said, you should check out the stamps he's been collecting since he was 8 -- around the time his mom started dressing him in bow ties. Be that as it may, his bow ties have become his claim to fame.